Sunday, April 8, 2012

English translation of Günter Grass’ poem on Israeli threat

Recently the german writer Guenter Grass has written a poem. In this poem he openly criticises Israel ! Now Israel has banned him from entering Israel.
Many famous jewish people & all kind of jewish organisations heavily complained about that poem & surely complained & blamed Mr. Grass
in being very wrong etc.
So first lesson we have to learn here: Do not complain about Israel or the jewish state or jewish people - you will be damned forever.
Honestly speaking I have the feeling that with this kind of attitude something is very, very wrong nowadays. I do not want to comment further - but it is a SCANDAL !
The Scandal is not the poem of Mr. Grass - the Scandal is the world-wide reaction on it. Here the poem first translated into english & then the original version.
This is from here !

Here is an English translation of a poetic protest
by Nobel Prize laureate Günter
Grass, against the prospect of the Israeli extermination
(“auslöschen”) of the Iranian people. The original poem as he wrote it in
German, follows this English rendering.

What Must Be Said

By Günter Grass, April, 2012

Why do I stay silent, conceal for too
longWhat clearly is and has beenPracticed in war games, at the end of which we as
survivorsAre at best footnotes.

It is the alleged right to first strikeThat could annihilate the Iranian
people-- Enslaved by a loud-mouthAnd guided to organized jubilation--Because in their territory,It is suspected, an atom bomb is being
built.

Yet why do I forbid myselfTo name that other countryIn which, for years, even if secretly,There has been a growing nuclear potential at
handBut beyond control, because no testing is
available?The universal concealment of these facts,To which my silence subordinated itself,I sense as incriminating liesAnd force--the punishment is promisedAs soon as it is ignored;The verdict of "anti-Semitism" is
familiar.Now, though, because in my countryWhich from time to time has sought and
confronted The very crimeThat is without compareIn turn on a purely commercial basis, if
alsoWith nimble lips calling it a reparation,
declaresA further U-boat should be delivered to
Israel,Whose specialty consists of guiding all-destroying
warheads to where the existenceOf a single atomic bomb is unproven,But through fear of what may be
conclusive,I say what must be said.Why though have I stayed silent until
now?Because I think my origin,Which has never been affected by this obliterating
flaw,Forbids this fact to be expected as pronounced
truthOf the country of Israel, to which I am
boundAnd wish to stay bound.Why do I say only now,Aged and with my last ink,That the nuclear power of Israel
endangersThe already fragile world peace?Because it must be saidWhat even tomorrow may be too late to
say;Also because we--as Germans burdened
enough--Could be the suppliers to a crimeThat is foreseeable, wherefore our
complicityCould not be redeemed through any of the usual
excuses.And granted: I am silent no longerBecause I am tired of the hypocrisyOf the West; in addition to which it is to be
hopedThat this will free many from silence,Prompt the perpetrator of the recognized
dangerTo renounce violence andLikewise insist That an unhindered and permanent controlOf the Israeli nuclear potentialAnd the Iranian nuclear sitesBe authorized through an international
agencyOf the governments of both countries.Only this way are all, the Israelis and
Palestinians,Even more, all people, that in thisRegion occupied by maniaLive cheek by jowl among enemies,In the end also to help us.Translated by Heather Horn, who writes: "What Must Be
Said,' is ...not exactly the prettiest prose in its original German, and the
English doesn't read much better....I've tried to untangle some of the
needlessly Teutonic constructions where it doesn't undo the deliberately winding
and parenthetical tone too much. Even more concise German can sound circuitous
to an English ear, but Grass's writing here is an extreme
example..."